Medical robotic systems such as those used in performing minimally invasive surgical procedures offer many benefits over traditional open surgery techniques, including less pain, shorter hospital stays, quicker return to normal activities, minimal scarring, reduced recovery time, and less injury to tissue. Consequently, demand for such medical robotic systems is strong and growing.
One example of such a medical robotic system is the da Vinci® Surgical System from Intuitive Surgical, Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., which is a minimally invasive robotic surgical system. The da Vinci® Surgical System has a number of robotic arms that move attached medical devices, such as an image capturing device and Intuitive Surgical's proprietary EndoWrist® articulating surgical instruments, in response to movement of input devices by a surgeon viewing images captured by the image capturing device of a surgical site. Each of the medical devices is inserted through its own minimally invasive incision into the patient and positioned to perform a medical procedure at the surgical site. The incisions are placed about the patient's body so that the surgical instruments may be used to cooperatively perform the medical procedure and the image capturing device may view it without their robotic arms colliding during the procedure.
In another example of a medical robotic system, a robotically manipulated endoluminal device may be employed that enters the patient through a single minimally invasive incision or through a body orifice, such as the mouth, rectum, vagina, or urethra, to reach a surgical or diagnostic site within a patient by passing, at least partially along with way, through a natural body lumen. The endoluminal device in this case may integrate surgical instruments and an image capturing device into one unit.
One application for such an endoluminal device is Natural-Orifice Transluminal Endosurgery (“NOTES”), which may involve, for example, passing flexible instruments through one of the body's orifices and entering the abdomen from the inside of the patient, rather than through a minimally invasive incision from the outside. For example, in “transgastric” surgery, instruments are passed through the mouth and into the stomach. A hole is then cut in the stomach wall to perform a medical procedure within the abdominal cavity. Once the procedure is completed, the instruments are withdrawn along with any tissue removed during the procedure, and the entry hole is stitched back up. Because the stomach wall has very few pain receptors, NOTES may be less painful than even minimally invasive surgery. Also, since it uses a natural body orifice instead of incisions to enter the body, it may result in reduced needs for general anesthetics and faster recovery times.
Medical robotic systems such as these generally require surgical instruments that are capable of cutting, grasping, and suturing tissue to perform medical procedures. However, in endoluminal devices which include integrated surgical instruments and an image capturing device, it may be difficult to ensure that the surgical instruments implemented therein can always generate sufficient cutting force or adequate dexterity to accomplish their intended tasks. Further, due to the nature of such robotically controlled instruments, their manipulation may be difficult to master for users of the medical robotic systems.